Deidara
by Akane of the Leaf
Summary: They say he's a bomber, cruel, heartless, empty. But the truth is, he has a story. The truth is, he's so much more than that. This is the story of Deidara's past, before he became a member of the Akatsuki.
1. Introduction

**Author's Note: Hello, everyone! To make this quick: I would be very much obliged if you would review after reading. This will help me improve what I write, and help you influence the story. Thank you very much! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto Shippuden_ or any of it's characters, nor do I make any money off of my writing. **

**Deidara**

**Chapter 1: Introduction**

My name is Deidara, and this is what you might think you know about me:

I was an Iwagakure shinobi, and a pupil of Onoki... hm.

I was a member of the Explosion corps until I stole the village's kinjutsu and defected... hm.

I wandered and offered my services as a bomber until I joined the Akatsuki.

I believe art is a blast- true art is captured within a moment.

And that's about it, yeah? Because I'm just one of the _bad guys_. I don't need to have a story, hmm? All anyone needs to know is that I'm in the bingo book of any Anbu, is that right? All that matters is who I seem to be, not how I got there, or whether I want to stay.

And so, no one will ever tell you that I have a little sister, that I have a last name, that my favorite color is the gentle blue right before a sunset. It simply isn't relevant to those who want me gone hm.

But the truth is, my name is Yukimura Deidara, and I have a story.

I want to tell my story before it drives me mad. Before it's too late, and I become a memory, a fleeting moment in history, just like any art I ever made.

**End Chapter**

**It's very short, but this is just the introduction. Please give me advice, details you might want in the story, and so on in a pm or review. Thank you very much!**


	2. Ashes

**Disclaimer****: I do not own ****_Naruto Shippuden_**** or any of it's characters, nor do I make any money off of my writing. **

**Deidara**

**Chapter 2: Ashes  
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I was born on an early Spring morning in the Hidden Stone Village, to Daisuke and Kokoro Yukimura. It was always a gray and dusty place, not much colour, not much excitement hm. My parents fit into it very well, but I could never understand why everyone seemed so satisfied with a village as cold as the stone for which it is named. Only one person ever agreed with me: Hanako. My precious little sister.

She was born five years later than me, with golden, wispy hair, and eyes that were as blue as the sky. Soon after she learned to speak, she began to question why our village never grows flowers like the ones I had shown her in my books. Flowers of red, yellow, violet, any color imaginable, but none, not even weeds, managed to grow through the Earth in Iwagakure. To humor my little sister, I carved small sculptures of flowers, and gave them to her. With every sculpture, her eyes would light up, and she would hold it in her hands gently, as though she thought the slightest movement may shatter it. I enjoyed making the sculptures, but something about them never seemed quite complete to me. I wouldn't come to understand what, until the day I saw fireworks light up the sky of a foreign village while on one of my first missions as a genin.

Colours that I had before only seen in pictures lit up the sky, then disappeared as though they were never there. Each one left me awestruck, and it was then that I understood the true meaning of art. That art is within the moment, a blast of colour that would be eternally preserved in the memory of those who saw it. Soon after they began, the fireworks ceased, leaving memories of colour splotched across my vision. When I looked to the ground, I saw a flower growing at my feet. I lily that seemed to glow with the intensity of flames.

When I gave the lily to Hanako, her eyes shone with tears.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful." At the time, she was 9, and I, 14. And so, I began to bring her true flowers, and myself, enlisted in the explosion corps hm. To my dismay, when I expressed my thoughts of explosions and art, the corps only mocked me.

"Explosions are no art. Explosions are meant to destroy." And that was as far as the topic went. Naturally, any artistic bombs I created were ridiculed and looked down upon. I was known throughout the village as the idiot who wasted time making beautiful bombs that would be destroyed anyway. Consequently, I had no friends, and dedicated myself to excelling in combat. Oddly enough, though my bombs were ridiculed, their explosive power did not go unnoticed by Onoki-san, and he praised my abilities. He supported me, but he also made it clear that he thought that my artistic bombs are a waste of time.

I suppose I would have continued to live that way, depressed and looked down upon, if it wasn't for Hanako. Each time I would return home, she would welcome me with her radiant smile, and show me one of her own pieces of art. At some point, she had discovered how to make her own paint, and began to paint the sculptures I gave her many years ago. Plain white sculptures of flowers became so intricately painted that they seemed to be fresh flowers, picked moments before. Hanako was the only one in Iwagakure who ever understood, and enhanced my art. Her delicacy with the brush, the intense look she got in her eyes when she painted, they inspired me to continue sculpting, to continue believing in my own art. One day, when I was 17, Hanako told me:

"I have... a secret I want to show you. Can you come with me, big bro?"

"Of course hm." She wasted no time, and immediately grabbed my hand, and dragged me outside. Eventually, we came to a fairly abandoned section of the village, and Hanako released my hand.

"Close your eyes, big bro." She said with a smile. I obliged, and heard a door opening, Hanako proceeded to guide me through the door, and then closed it behind her.

"Open your eyes." When I did so, I swear what I saw caused my heart to stop for a moment. Inside of an empty, roofless old building, there grew a sea of crimson lilies. They grew through the dirt floor of the hut and up the crackled walls, stopping just shy of the exposed roof.

"Did you... do this yourself?" I managed to say.

"Yes. They're just like the first flower you gave me. Do you remember?"

"Of course... This is amazing, little sis!"

"You really think so?" I nod enthusiastically, walking around the building with a smile plastered onto my face. "I'm afraid the other villagers would hate this place. I don't know anyone else who loves art and color like you do, big bro..." Hanako said.

"Well no one except for you seems to like my sculptures, but I don't let that stop me, hm. Keep this up Hanako-chan! Maybe some day, the others will understand, and Iwagakure will blossom with color, yeah!"

"I will, big bro! But hey... um... can you dance with me?"

"Sure!" I take Hanako's hand, and we waltz among the pulsating lilies, beneath the silver moonlight shining through the gaping roof. I feel happier than I have in my life.

The next morning, as I headed off to a mission beyond the city walls, Hanako stopped me for a moment. She pressed a red lily into my hand.

"For luck, big bro." She said smiling.

"Thank you, hm." I say, grinning back. Later, as I tuck the lily into my pouch, I frown. Today, the lily seems to be the color of crimson blood, and I could swear that it carries the scent of smoke. I dismiss the thoughts, and proceed with the mission, though a sense of dread still lingers throughout the day. When I return home, Hanako doesn't seem to be there, so I ask my parents where she is.

"She ran off when she heard that there's a huge fire in some abandoned house on the outskirts of the village." My mother, Kokoro, says with a shrug. My eyes widen, and I run out of the house, as fast as I can, to Hanako's garden. The closer I get, the more it smells of smoke, and I become increasingly aware of the black column rising from the northern end of town, with flames licking up at the bottom.

Hanako's garden is on fire, an armada of bystanders surrounding it, making no attempt to put it out.

"Where is she?" I scream into their faces. "Where is my sister?"

"Do you mean the blond girl who ran in soon after the fire started, saying something about flowers?" My heartbeat quickens.

"Yes! Where is she?"

"She... never came out." The world stops. All I see is the flames, rising into the sky, radiating death. Only then does a crew arrive to put the fire out. Their arrival snaps me out of my trance, and I run into the building, the heat blistering my skin, the flames licking up my clothes.

"HANAKO!" I scream. The flames surround me, and I realize the flowers are all gone. One of the wooden beams stretching over the gaping hole of the roof collapses, landing on top of me, and as my vision blackens, I realize that through all my training in the explosion corps, I've learned that stone buildings and green plants don't randomly catch on fire. Someone did this on purpose.

At some point, I wake up, and find myself in a hospital, covered in bandages. I'm told that I was very badly burned, that I'm lucky to have survived. When I inquire about my sister, they tell me she is gone. I proceed to run away from the hospital, jumping through a window when the hospital staff attempts to stop me. I end up at the charred remains of my sister's garden. The only things left are the blackened stones of the building's walls, lying discordantly among piles of ash. That, and the distinct smells of gunpowder and oil.

They did this on purpose. They destroyed her garden. They killed her... killed Hanako. I walk into the center of the rubble, and place a single red lily, which I had salvaged from my pouch in the hospital, onto the ash. I stare at the flower, which mysteriously still looks freshly picked, and I realize that they have also killed me. Among these ashes, I will be reborn. Tears of anguish, fury, hatred run down my face, soaking into the bandages covering it. I lower myself to my knees, ignoring the pull of the bandages.

"Good bye, little sis. I promise you, they will pay. They will ALL pay."

**End Chapter**

**So, what do you guys think? Is there anything I need to edit, or add? Any ideas for what I should do in further chapters? Oh, by the way, I'm taking requests for any stories you would like me to write. Anyway, Thanks for reading!**


	3. Truth

**Disclaimer****: I do not own ****_Naruto Shippuden_**** or any of it's characters, nor do I make any money off of my writing. **

**Deidara**

**Chapter 3: ****Truth**

Apparently someone either cares that I'm missing, or doesn't want an angry bomber on the loose (probably the latter, hm), because after some time, some Stone shinobi come to 'fetch' me. One of them explains that they were sent by Onoki, and makes an attempt to help me up.

"I can get up myself." I say coolly, and proceed to do so. They lead me back to the hospital, and I notice several people giving me odd looks. 'What? Are you surprised to see that I'm still alive, hm? You haven't beaten me yet... Someday, I'll make the village blossom, yeah.', I think. Eventually, I am escorted into the hospital, where Onoki- sensei is waiting for me. I ignore him, and sit on my hospital bed, pretending to examine the bandages.

"Deidara, everyone has always been telling me that you're a great kid..."

"Is that why they've always mocked my art?" I interrupt.

"Your art is... different. It will take time for people to understand it."

"Then why do people understand fireworks, hm?"

"I didn't come here to talk about your art. I only wanted to tell you... You must keep moving forward, Deidara."

"Move... forward, hm?"

"You're extremely talented, Deidara. You need to keep moving forward. Don't let your sister's death stop you. You know she wouldn't have wanted that." After that, Onoki- sensei leaves. I know he's right: Hanako would want me to move on... to replant the garden, hm. But it's difficult to forgive a village that has reserved you only for use as a human weapon for so long. Even my first sensei, at the Academy, never looked twice at me until my explosion release kekkei genkai was discovered.

_~Years Back~_

_A younger Deidara sits towards the back of class at the Academy, looking absently at the birds flying on the other side of the long, glass window. He would have given anything, at that moment, to break through that confining glass, and to fly alongside the birds. He kneads the soft clay in his hands, into a small, white bird. A dove? He snaps back to attention as the bird is yanked out of his hands. The still soft clay easily turns back into a lump in the rough hands it has been snatched up by._

_"This is not a sculpting class, kid! You'd best pay attention if you even dare hope to graduate from here!", says the stocky-built, black haired man in front of Deidara. Upset that the man smashed his bird, Deidara frowns, and looks back out the window. "Look at your elders when they speak to you!"_

_"No." Deidara whispers. By then the whole class is watching, mildly amused at the spectacle. This wasn't the first time Deidara had disrespected the teacher. _

_"Did you say 'no'?" _

_"Yes, I said 'NO'!" Deidara says, looking into the man's eyes. He'd already gotten enough crap from his father the day before, and he didn't need any more. _

_"You're going to regret this, kid." _

_"I don't care, yeah!" He shouts, standing up sharply. At the precise moment, every window in the classroom explodes, showering the class with fine bits of glass. For once, the teacher looks genuinely intrigued by Deidara._

_"Hmm. Come with me." He says, grabbing Deidara's arm, and dragging him out of class. "Class dismissed!" The teacher takes Deidara to the Tsuchikage's tower._

_"Why are we going here, hm? Sensei?" Asks a frightened Deidara. He hadn't meant to blow out the glass. It was an accident! He doesn't receive a reply. The teacher requests audience with the Tsuchikage, and is granted it. He takes Deidara to the Tsuchikage's office._

_"Thank you for the audience, Tsuchikage-sama." The man says respectfully. _

_"Why did you request the audience, Afeita? And why is this boy with you?"_

_"Sir, I believe he has explosion release kekkei denkai? He blew out the windows in my classroom." _

_"Hm. We will find that out. What's his name?" Asks Onoki. Deidara decides to answer himself, which earns him a dirty look from Afeita. _

_"My name is Yukimura Deidara, Tsuchikage-sama." _

_"I see. You may leave, Afeita." Afeita bows respectfully, and exits. _

_"Deidara, did you blow out the windows of the classroom?"_

_"Um... I think so... hm." Deidara replies. _

_Afte__r a number of tests, it was revealed that Deidara does, in fact, have Explosion release kekkei genkai. He showed affinity to it, and was hence taken as a pupil by Onoki. When he returned to the Academy, Deidara was permitted to take the exit exam early, and he passed it easily by demonstrating a bomb he had created. Wisely, he had made the bomb small, so it caused only minor damage to the Academy. As he left the building with his new headband, Deidara ran into his now former teacher, Afeita. _

_"Hm, maybe I was wrong about you, kid. You have more potential than I expected. Work it up, will you? Stop wasting your time on those sculptures of yours."_

_"Thank you for the advice, Afeita-san, but I can not follow through with that." After hearing the reply, Afeita only shook his head, and headed off to his class. At the time, Deidara was nine years old. Soon enough, Deidara ended up seeing his first fireworks, and become firmly set on making bombs that are beautiful before, and after they are detonated. He wanted his explosions to look just like the fireworks that had inspired him so deeply.  
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~Back to the Present~

At the memory of the fireworks, Deidara remembers what he did right after they ended- he had seen that damn flower, and picked it to give to his sister.

"It's all my fault. It's my fault she's gone... I'm the one who showed her flowers, made her sculptures of them, gave her real ones... If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have grown that garden, and that fire wouldn't have happened... And when it did... I failed... I failed to protect the only sister I had... Hanako, I'm so sorry..."

****End Chapter****

****Again, please review with your comments/criticisms/ideas/etc. Your opinions matter, all of ya!****


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